As long as we’re talking about government expertise in fostering jobs, trade, a better economy and all good things, we have another example.

Amonix, a designer and manufacturer of concentrated photovoltaic solar power systems, Amonix received $6 million in federal tax credits and a $15.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to build a plant in North Las Vegas. Amonix has closed its 214,000 square foot facility 14 months after it opened.

Rene Kenerly, a former material and supply manager at Amonix, said the plant has been idle since May 1, when he was laid off. At its peak, the plant had ramped up to about 700 employees working three shifts a day to produce solar panels for a utility customer in Amarosa, Colorado.

“I don’t think they had a lot of training,” Kenerly said. There were a lot of quality issues. A lot of stuff was coming back because it had some functionality issues. $20 million of taxpayer money to a green energy company that made poor product because of poor training.

Just another in a long line of people going for free government money. Except it’s taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and it’s not free.

President Obama famously said, on video, in his own voice, with his own lips moving in producing those words that:”if you’ve got a business — somebody else made that happen.” Democrats are anxiously lining up to assert that he didn’t say that.” “He was talking about infrastructure,” but he did say it, and he meant just what he said.

Paul Ryan, Chairman of the powerful House Budget Committee, commented on Facebook:

The President recently suggested that a central government – not individuals – deserves the credit for building successful businesses. This sentiment makes for terrible economics, but also reveals a confused morality. In a free community, everyone co-operates by voluntarily offering unique gifts: some invent, some invest, others labor, or sell while customers reward the best producers and providers by buying their products and services. Government has a critical role to play in this process: establishing rules that enable open competition and securing peace and order with courts, defense forces, first responders, teachers, infrastructure, and a safety net for the most vulnerable. Government helps create the space for innovation and prosperity, but government does not fill that space – and it should not try to, as the last few years have shown us. Only free citizens create things that improve our lives. A free economy and strong communities are the best means to reward effort with justice, to promote upward mobility, and to build solidarity among citizens. The President’s vision of a government-centered society – reflected in both his troubling rhetoric and his failed policies – belittles fair rewards for labor and enterprise. To renew prosperity and rebuild our communities, we must recommit to the American Idea of freedom and justice for all.

That’s pretty good. I know that Democrats are inclined to believe that everything is better done by government, because ordinary people are so stupid and incompetent, but there is no evidence that government does things better, only that in better times government has deeper pockets. There really isn’t anything that they do well, there are just some things that only a government can do—however badly.

The federal government did not build the Golden Gate Bridge as the president claimed, they fought it tooth and nail. Henry Ford didn’t get highways built for him. He used the same roads that buggies and wagons had been using for years and he built the Model T to cope with bad roads. Only free citizens create things that improve our lives.

James Freeman, at the Wall Street Journal,points out the ironies of Mr. Obama’s attack on Bain Capital. It is clear that the Obama team doesn’t understand what it is that Bain Capital or Mr. Romney did, for they have confused the private equity firm with “corporate raiders,” and Wall Street tycoons. “Bain Capital,” Freeman says, “is the investment firm that has spent much of its 28 years enriching Mr. Obama’s voters. Bain clients tend to be government-employee pension funds, foundations, trusts and elite universities. According to Dow Jones LP Source, investors in Bain funds have included both Mr. Obama’s alma mater, Columbia, as well as Michelle Obama’s Princeton.”

Harvard has also invested with Bain. Bain Partners have also included pension funds for government workers in Illinois, Iowa, Maryland and elsewhere. Teachers’ retirement funds in California, Indiana and Ohio have also been limited partners in Bain funds.

If Mr. Obama truly believes that Bain made its money by firing people and destroying businesses, should the universities and public-school teachers give back their Bain money?

Mr. Obama is in an unenviable position. The economy in his term has only gotten worse. He blamed his predecessor for a longer period than could be supported, then he has attempted to blame Republican intransigence, but that doesn’t seem to be working either. Then the Democrats hauled out Ann Romney’s horse. Ann Romney has survived breast cancer, multiple sclerosis, and five sons and dressage is therapeutic for her. So they somehow have to portray Mitt Romney’s success with Bain Capital as a negative. Good luck with that. I guess you could try something like “if you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.” Oh wait…